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Show ATROCITIES ARE NOW POINTED OUT London. Jan. 18, G p. m. Tho British Brit-ish official view of tho German noto regarding the Baralong caso was given giv-en out tonight as follows: t "The Gormans claim that their army nnd navy have obaorved during tho present war the principles of international' interna-tional' law and humanity and that the Gorman authorities tako caro that all violations will bo carefully Investigated Investi-gated and punished. "Somo surprise Is expressed that tho nation whose armed forces have been responsible for the sack of Lou-vain, Lou-vain, tho murder of hundreds of unoffending un-offending men women and children on tho Lusltania and other snips, tho execution of Edith Cavcll, tho introduction intro-duction of poisonous gases, the poisoning pois-oning of wells, attomptod torpedoing of hospital ships and countless other atrocities should describo their moth-ods moth-ods on warfare as human. "It Is hero pointed out that it would bo interesting to know how many German subjects, If any, have been punished for these atrocities. Tho Germans claim that tho Arabic was torpedoed because the commander comman-der of tlio submarine had the conviction convic-tion that tho Arabic was about to ram the sirbmarino. The true facts are that the Arabic was deliveratoly sunk by a Gorman submarine without warning and that sho neither attempted attempt-ed to attack tho submarine nor escape es-cape from It. "With regard to the destruction of the British submarino E-13 in Danish waters by a German torpedo boat destroyer, de-stroyer, it Is claimed that It came to a fight between tho war vessels and that the submarine defended itself with gunfire. These facts are as follows: fol-lows: Submarine E-13 Case. "The Germans found the subma rlne stranded in neutral waters and incapable of either offense or defense. The German destroyer fired a torpedo at the E-13. Tho torpedo exploded close to her. At the same moment the German destroyer fired with all her whose submarino was afire fore and aft and who was unable to defend himself owing to being aground, gave orders to the crow to abandon her. While the men were in the water they were fired on by machine guns and with shrapnel. I "The Germans defend their action in the case of the Ruel on the ground that it was a measure of reprisal In accordance with measures announced by the Germon government In February, Feb-ruary, 1915. tl Is clamed that thesa reprisals are legitimate, owing to the action of Great Britain in forgetting to cut off from Germany all imports and starve the German people. The Germans thus maintain their subma rlne policy in regard to tho British measures against German trade. "Thl, Is, of course, quite untrue, tho exact opposite being the case. As far back as December, 1914, Admiral von Tlrpltz foreshadowed the submarine subma-rine blockade of Great Britain and submarino attacks were made on a merchant ship and a hospital ship on January 30, and February 1, respectively. respec-tively. Moreover, as far back as September, Sep-tember, 1914, a Dutch ship, with a cargo of grain for Dublin and Belfast, Bel-fast, was sunk by the Karlsruhe, and tho American ship W. P. Fryo similarly sim-ilarly was sunk on January 28 "Further, on February 4, the German Ger-man government declared their intention inten-tion of Instituting a general submarine subma-rine blockade of Great Britain and Iroland with thn avowod pnrnoso - cutting off all supplies from these islands and this blockade was put into effect on February 18. "It was only on March 11, that the British government put into force as a means of reprisals, measures against German trade which the German Ger-man government now tries to maintain main-tain were the cause of their submarine subma-rine policy. "With regard to the German refusal re-fusal to submit the Baralong case and tho three cases put forward by tho British government for investigation by an impartial neutral tribunal, this action seems hard to explain if the Germans are really so convinced as they Bay of the guilt of the British commander and the innocence of the perpetrators of three outrages cited by the British government. "So far as Great Britain is concerned, con-cerned, it is entirely untrue to state that the British government has left unfilled a just demand for Investigation. Investiga-tion. They have proposed it and It is the Germans who have rejected it, doubtless because they know full well that the cases in which they are defendants de-fendants would be decided against them by any Impartial tribunal." nn |
